Researchers Young Jun
Park and Sang-Woo Kim led the team who discovered how to utilize
the prime ingredient in calamine lotion -- zinc oxide -- to develop
a nanomaterial that
turns sound waves into electricity.

After creating a field
of nanowires sandwiched
between two electrodes, the group was able to produce a current of 50
millivolts by blasting the field with sound waves of 100db (a normal
conversation is 60-70db), according to Syberplanet.net.

"Just
as speakers transform electric signals into sound, the opposite
process — of turning sound into a source of electrical power — is
possible. Sound power can be used for various novel applications
including mobile phones that can be charged during conversations and
sound-insulating walls near highways that generate electricity from
the sound of passing vehicles," said Young Jun Park and Sang-Woo
Kim.

In addition to the possibility of using this research to
help keep phones charged in the future, the technology is also
being considered as a means to add power to electrical
grids during rush hour.

Young Jun Park and Sang-Woo
Kim presented their findings in an article which appears in
the Advanced
Materials journal.